Studies about reduced tillage in soil cultivated with roots and tubers are rare and controversial. This study aimed to assess and compare the sweet potato tuberous roots yield in an alfisol type soil managed with conventional tillage (plowing followed by leveling and making mounds) and reduced tillage with straw on the soil surface (cultivated only along the rows). The experimental design was in randomized blocks in split-plot scheme. The principal plots corresponded to conventional tillage (with mounds) and reduced tillage, and the subplots to four collect periods: 90, 120, 150 and 180 days after planting. The characteristics evaluated were: total and commercial yields, numbers of total and commercial tuberous roots, and commercial tuberous roots individual fresh mass. Sweet potato crop had total and commercial tuberous roots yields around 68 and 75% higher in conventional tillage, respectively, than in reduced tillage. This response was caused by the high numbers of total and commercial roots in soil under conventional tillage. There was no difference between the soil management on tuberous roots individual fresh mass. As conclusion, the conventional tillage is better to the sweet potato crop.
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Slag is a calcium silicate and silicon source, whose corrective action on soil is similar to the limestone one. Despite its corrective and fertilizing potential, there is little information about its effects on soil chemical attributes. The study evaluated the effects of the slag, limestone, and urea application on the chemical attributes of a Brazilian Oxisol cultivated with rice. The treatments consisted of two corrective agents sources (limestone and slag), with three doses (1.3 g dm-3, 2.6 g dm-3, and 5,2 g dm-3); three N doses (80 mg dm-3, 160 mg dm-3, and 320 mg dm-3), applied as urea; and a control, arranged in randomized blocks, in a factorial scheme, with four replications. Ninety days after the soil incubation and 120 days after planting, soil samples were collected for chemical analysis. The slag was efficient in correcting soil acidity, and nitrogen fertilization contributed to increment acidity in the soil cultivated with rice, decreasing base saturation, as well as the Ca and Mg content. The slag application improved silicon availability, however, when associate to the nitrogen fertilization, the silicon content in the soil did not change.
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